Your paediatrician or other professional may offer you investigations after your child’s diagnosis

These are blood test investigations looking at some general health markers (such as a haemoglobin or blood count, Vitamin D level) and some other tests which look for conditions which are known to be associated with autism (such as a muscle marker for Muscular Dystrophies), and genetic tests. The genetic tests look at differences between the child’s genetic material and the rest of the population’s.

For children without physical disability, learning disability, an unusual head size, or unusual facial features, the chances of finding something on the genetic tests are low. In this situation your paediatrician or other professional will give you the choice about whether to go ahead with these blood tests or not. There is no right or wrong way to approach this – different families feel differently about the general and genetic tests.

In the unusual situation where a definite genetic cause was found this may bring information and a ‘reason’ why the child has autism, but it does not mean there is a treatment or ‘cure’.

Parents often ask about whether their future children may have autism as well. The chance of having a child with autism is about 1% (or 1 in 100). There is an increased chance of autism in other children in the same family – the siblings of children with autism have a risk of about 5% (1 in 20). This means 95% or 19 out of 20 siblings will not have autism. It is not possible to predict or test for autism in pregnancy. Autism can vary hugely so even siblings who both have autism can be very different in the way it affects them.

There is no known 'cure' for autism. This does not mean, however, that nothing can be done to support a person who is on the autism spectrum. Our understanding of autism has grown hugely since it was first identified in the 1940s, and as we learn more about the condition, more evidence-based interventions may become available.

The characteristics of autism can present themselves in a wide variety of combinations and severity. Two people with the same diagnosis can have a very different profile of needs and skills; because autism is a 'spectrum' condition it affects different people in different ways. It is very difficult to generalise about how an autistic person will develop over time. It is important to realise that an intervention which works well with one person may not be appropriate or effective with another.

There is a growing movement among activist adults who are on the autism spectrum who don't think in terms of 'curing' a disorder but instead of celebrating diversity. This is not to suggest that autistic people or those with other diagnoses do not find life challenging, but that they frame autism within a social model of disability. People with a desire to cure autism are sometimes known by autistic adults as 'curebies'. You may wish to read more about this viewpoint; these can be accessed via the National Autistic Society website.

Autism can have profound effects on a person and families understandably have questions about its causes, including whether there is a link to vaccines, such as MMR as this has been in the media a lot over the years.

The medical evidence is clear that there is no link between Autism and the MMR vaccine. This is also the position of The National Autistic Society.

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Medical investigations into Autism

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